Deep Fried Prawn Paste Chicken Wings 虾酱炸鸡翅

I have fallen sick for 2 whole weeks and have almost lost my sense of tastes to the variety of medicines I have been taking. With the persistent high fever, flu and cough, my diet had been very controlled. I had mainly porridge and vermicelli in soup for 2 weeks. Now that I'm almost recovered, I think I justify something tasty to help regain my taste buds. The Deep Fried Prawn Paste Chicken Wings 虾酱炸鸡翅 is something I crave for but hardly cook for my family. For once, I thought I would spoil them a little with this dish.

Deep Fried Prawn Paste Chicken Wings 虾酱炸鸡翅 is a popular tze char (hot fry) dish in Singapore, well loved by children and adults. There are of course many versions of creating the most tasty and crispy chicken wings. Some feel that the shrimp paste makes the difference. Some claim it is the combination of flour used to create the batter that's the winning formula. I am not in favour to use various types of flour to create an ideal batter. I thought my simple home cook method of preparing this dish is simple, flavourful, yet crispy. And that's enough to satisfy our humble appetite.

Ingredients (enough for 4 pax with rice and other dishes) :

• 7 fresh chicken mid wings and 7 drumlets  
• 1 tbsp prawn paste (refer to picture below - use the left one if you prefer a more pungent taste; use the right one if you prefer a milder taste. I used the one on the left.)
• 3 tbsp tapioca flour
• cooking oil

(tsp = teaspoon; tbsp = tablespoon) 

Method :

1. Marinade chicken mid wings and drumlets with prawn paste. Toss to ensure all winglets and drumlets are evenly coated with prawn paste. Cover and leave in refrigerator to marinade for 4 to 5 hours.
2. Remove chicken winglets and drumlets from chiller 1 hour before cook. 
3. Coat all chicken winglets and drumlets with tapioca flour. 
4. Spread coated chicken winglets and drumlets on a tray and send back to chill in refrigerator. The key is to keep the chicken dry if we want to achieve crispiness when fry.
5. Heat cooking oil in saucepan/wok at medium heat when ready to fry chicken winglets and drumlets.
6. Remove chicken winglets and drumlets from refrigerator again.
7. Fold in chicken winglets and drumlets into hot cooking oil and allow to deep fry for 5 minutes. Ensure chicken winglets and drumlets are fully submerged into hot cooking oil.
8. Deep fry at medium heat to allow the insides to be fully cooked. The colour of the chicken winglets and drumlets would be a light golden brown by then. 
9. Remove chicken winglets and drumlets from hot cooking oil and leave to cool on a plate lined with paper towel.
10. Repeat Step 7 to 9 till all chicken winglets and drumlets are deep fried for first round.
11. Turn to high heat, and refry all the chicken winglets and drumlets in the same cooking oil again a second round for another 3 to 5 minutes (or till colour turned to darker golden brown).
12. After this double frying process, remove chicken winglets and drumlets from saucepan/wok and leave to cool before serve. 

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The double frying process is really the key to achieving crispiness to the Deep Fried Prawn Paste Chicken Wings 虾酱炸鸡翅. Believe it or not, it is less oily too. 

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